Andre 3000, the illustrious hip hop artist who recently promised to perform at forty festivals for an OutKast reunion, will star as Jimi Hendrix in a biopic entitled All Is By My Side. The film is set for its U.S. premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival, held from March 7-16 in Austin, TX.
In making the film, writer/director John Ridley only considered Andre 3000 for the role of Hendrix. In preparation, Andre studied hours of concert and interview footage, diligently learning the iconic guitarist’s mannerisms. All Is By My Side documents Hendrix from his days in anonymity in New York until his career-defining performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. You can watch Andre briefly discuss his role, here:
However, since the Hendrix estate would not sign off on the project, none of Jimi’s music will be featured in the film’s soundtrack. Instead, All Is By My Side contains a soundtrack with familiar blues and rock tunes, from artists like Muddy Waters, The Beatles, The Troggs, and more… essentially, Jimi Hendrix’s influences (and songs that he covered!).
Without the music rights, the film focuses more on Hendrix’s personal relationships and career decisions, in the context of his meteoric rise to fame. It sounds like an incredibly interesting story, if you ask us…
The festival will also include other notable musically-themed films, such as Rubber Soul, a reconstruction of John Lennon and Yoko Ono interviews, a Johnny Winter biopic, a Swedish House Mafia documentary, and Stuart Murdoch’s (Belle and Sebastian) film, entitled God Bless the Girl.
You can get the full list of entertainment featured at the festival through the SXSW website.
-David Melamed (@DMelamz)